February 2nd, 2008

Sustainable Seafood Guide

Posted by Jessica Jensen

Our good friends over at Smithsonian.com have produced a great guide to sustainable seafood, and we wanted to share it with you. Please read this excellent piece by Bruce Hathaway to learn how you can enjoy delicious fruits of the sea and still protect the health of our oceans.

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Overfishing, harmful fishery techniques and habitat destruction have brought into question whether many of the world’s fish stocks can sustain themselves. Does that mean we should stop eating fish if we care about the sea? “Definitely not,” says Carole Baldwin, National Museum of Natural History marine biologist and coauthor of One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook.

There are plenty of fisheries that use eco-friendly methods and limit their take with species’ long-term survival in mind, Baldwin says. Although Chilean sea bass should be avoided in general because of overfishing, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has certified a fishery off South Georgia Island near Antarctica as sustainable. Several other ventures aiming to produce environmentally sound farmed fish have recently launched. Australis Aquaculture in Massachusetts, for instance, raises Australian barramundi. “The operation emphasizes clean and healthy procedures—99 percent of the water is purified and recycled, there are no hormones, antibiotics or colorants and by using pure artesian well water they can assure that the fish is virtually free of mercury and other contaminants,” says Baldwin.

BEST

Of all the seafood choices a consumer in North America can make, these are the most eco-friendly.

• U.S. farm-raised oysters, mussels and clams: Cultivated on both coasts in sound farming operations, these filter-feeders actually improve water quality.
• U.S. farm-raised barramundi, striped bass (rockfish), white sturgeon, catfish, tilapia and trout: These inland aquaculture operations cause minimal environmental harm.
• Sablefish:This tasty, eco-friendly alternative to Chilean sea bass is an example of a well-managed deep-sea fishery; it’s certified as sustainable by the MSC.
• Ecofish brand canned albacore tuna (www.ecofish.com): It is sustainably caught using single fishing lines and is tested for contaminants, including mercury.
• Alaskan salmon: Wild Alaskan chum, coho, king, pink and sockeye salmon fisheries are all MSC-certified as well-managed and sustainable.
• Pollock (aka frozen fish sticks, imitation crabmeat): This MSC-certified operation is an excellent example of how an enormous fishery can be sustainably managed.
• Pacific halibut: Another example of a well-managed, West Coast fishery that’s MSC certified.

To seee GOOD, BAD and WORST seafood choices, please read the rest of this feature at Smithsonian.com.